Welcome to Verndale

We are a customer experience agency, purpose-built to help marketing and technology leaders connect the dots of the customer journey.

We design and build digital experiences, and enable marketing technologies that bring brands and their customers closer together.

Boston | Los Angeles | Quito

EXPERIENCE IS EVERYTHING

We are one of the largest independent agencies in the customer experience industry with three offices in two countries and over 125 people. While our focus has evolved over the years, one thing has remained constant: We exist to help brands grow by creating and optimizing the best digital experiences for their consumers.

Owning the customer experience and stewarding that journey allows companies to drive focused innovation, retain a competitive advantage, and ensure the best possible business outcomes.

We’ve engineered our business around the needs of the customer experience leader - combining strategy, design, technology enablement and optimization into one cohesive methodology that helps them succeed.

Leadership

Our singular focus is helping companies unlock the value of the customer experience.
And that takes experience.

Chris Pisapia

Chief Executive Officer
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Matt Pisapia

Chief Operations Officer
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Joe Zarrett

Managing Partner, Southeast Region
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Sean Connell

Chief Technology Officer
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Meg Priest

SVP, Human Resources
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Tim Linberg

Chief Experience Officer
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Chris Todisco

Chief Financial Officer
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David Kovner

SVP, Account Management
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Ross Lucivero

Managing Director, Los Angeles
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Ryan Moltenbrey

EVP, Sales
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Elizabeth Spranzani

SVP, Development
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German Villacreces

Managing Director, Verndale Quito
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Jeff Pratt

Commerce Practice Director
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Chris Pisapia

Chief Executive Officer

It’s a good thing Chris loves his work, because he is always working. This has been the case since he was 14 and the pattern hasn’t let up since. He’s come a long way from the paper routes and commercial kitchens of his youth to being the head of Verndale, which he helped found in 1998.

Chris has a talent for seeing the large strategic picture as well as granular details – this gives him the uncanny ability to distill complex situations into simple, actionable strategies. He’s also a serial entrepreneur, constantly thinking of ways to grow and extend whatever business he’s engaged with. These traits have been as important to his client work as they are to his role in shaping Verndale’s success over the last two decades.

He considers Verndale his first child and cares deeply about its growth and health, as well as that of people who make it great. When he’s not on the road for a client or in a meeting, peppering a whiteboard with commanding infographics, you might find him on the move with his actual children as they chip away at their goal of seeing all 50 states.

Matt Pisapia

Chief Operations Officer

One of Verndale's founding partners, Matt knows the business inside and out – which means he can pull out all the stops to deliver results for clients. Overseeing daily operations, he makes sure that every client has the best team and the right resources for the job at hand.

Matt is actively involved in defining and executing Verndale’s strategy. He is a key driver of new initiatives from service and product offerings to expansion and organizational structure. While Matt certainly has his hands on the day to day happenings of Verndale, he also has the big picture view and knows where we need to go to consistently exceed the expectations of our clients.

Matt’s mantra is that you have to break big ideas down into bite-size pieces so people can consume them. Matt’s dog and officemate, Gus, wholeheartedly agrees and is happy to demonstrate at any time.

Joe Zarrett

Managing Partner, Southeast Region

Entrepreneurial spirit? Well, at 12 he founded his own landscaping business by saving up his paper route money to buy a lawnmower.

Grace under pressure? He volunteers as an EMT. After that there’s no business problem or client challenge that can make his palm sweat.

Stamina? In addition to the 18-year marathon keeping Verndale at the leading edge of technology, he is a regular at any number of physically brutal obstacle-based mud races.

He’s also pretty fantastic at seeing the big picture – artfully matching a client’s challenges with the best strategy to solve them. That includes helping them get the absolute most our of their technology investments.

Life’s not all hard work, barbed wire, and high pressure though. His favorite way to unwind is practicing the ukulele with his daughter or getting some quiet time in on the water with a cold drink in his hand.

Sean Connell

Chief Technology Officer

He builds furniture, brews beer, smokes his own meat, makes his own hot sauce, grows his own vegetables, majored in Computer Science with minors in both Art History and Astronomy. Oh, and he can throw a football better than most. It’s all in the reflexes.

This ridiculously broad set of interests has shaped his ability to take disparate, complex technical concepts and make them incredibly clear. Because of this he’s able to act as the bridge between technical and non-technical teams – stoking meaningful collaboration between the two and freeing clients up to focus on marketing goals rather than technical roadblocks.

During his tenure at Verndale, he’s built a team of over 100 engineers across Development, Technical Business Analysis, Managed Services, and Research & Development. Being a Sitecore Certified Developer himself, he’s completed hundreds of successful client implementations, from straight CMS to the full MarTech stack.

When he’s not at Verndale you’ll find him spending time with his wife and kids, pursuing his myriad interests, or finding whatever excuse he can find to get his giant, wonderfully crazy extended family together.

Meg Priest

SVP, Human Resources

Just ask her three young kids, the 30+ varieties of flowers in her burgeoning garden, the countless horses she’s taken care of over a lifetime of riding, and her goldendoodle, Charlie, who is an office staple.

Of course, the decade she’s spent as an HR professional doesn’t hurt either – with experience at Aberdeen Group, Bear Stearns, and more. She’s also SPHR and SHRM-SCP certified. Which may just sound like a bunch of letters if you’re not in HR, but it’s kind of a big deal. We see it as official recognition of what we’ve known all along – that she’s awesome at helping people become even better versions of themselves. So if you know any smart, respectful and talented people out there, be sure to send them her way.

Meg spends her free time with her family spotting whales off the Maine coast, swimming with giant mantas and sea turtles in the Caribbean, and hopping in on the occasional double dutch session.

Sidenote: She loves the heat. Like 90+ degrees kind of heat. Which means we have a pretty good idea who keeps turning the AC down when no one’s looking.

Tim Linberg

Chief Experience Officer

As Chief Experience Officer, Tim’s oversees a cross-functional team that spans strategy, experience design, creative services, and marketing - delivering holistic, end-to-end solutions for the optimization of the customer experience.

Prior to joining the Verndale Team, Tim served as Director of Brand Activation for Breakaway, a hybrid agency/VC firm based in Boston. In that capacity, he developed and led an integrated practice of social, content, digital, public relations, and brand experience design for clients ranging from global brands like Puma, VELCRO Brand, and Tishman Speyer, to energetic start-ups like Oath Craft Pizza, IdeaPaint and Drizly.

Tim started his career as co-founder of MetroConcepts, a boutique entertainment marketing firm that served clients across the music and lifestyle industries, including Interscope Records, Virgin Records, adidas, and Red Bull. In his glory days he worked with artists like Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Black Eyed Peas, and Everlast.

Chris Todisco

Chief Financial Officer

As Chief Financial Officer with over 20 years experience Chris is a key contributor to Verndale’s growth strategy and is responsible for the overall financial health of the organization (which means we all sleep better knowing he’s fantastic at his job).

Chris is constantly searching for ways to improve and believes that consistent, incremental advancement is more important than making wild, uninformed leaps.

He’s also the quintessential team player – reaching well beyond the numbers and deep into the alphabet to provide thoughtful, level headed strategic advice to managers across the organization.

Chris has spent his entire career in the marketing and media industry with experience in both large and small companies. He was most recently SVP Finance at Isobar, and prior to that was CFO at Molecular, VP of Finance at Carat, and Controller at Arnold Worldwide. Chris also earned his MBA from the Suffolk University Executive MBA Program.

Most of his time outside of work is spent using his immense mathematical skills to keep score at his kid’s sporting events

David Kovner

SVP, Account Management

The Celtics had Red Auerbach. The Redskins had Joe Gibbs. The Account team at Verndale – has David Kovner. With over a decade of account management experience across verticals ranging from energy to healthcare, and insurance to nonprofit – David helps push the account team at Verndale to be even better than they were the day before.

He believes the greatest asset to working as a team is keeping an open mind. His open mind is typically hard at work getting to know the nuances of our client’s business so that we can be the best strategic partner.

When he’s not leading the account team at Verndale, he’s on the field coaching his own kid’s soccer, basketball and softball games. Basically, he just can’t stop coaching.

Ross Lucivero

Managing Director, Los Angeles

Formally educated as a mechanical engineer, Ross found his way to an aerospace software company where he saw huge potential in web solutions – launching a web development company with several members of his team. This experience gave him the ability to work across a wide range of verticals and also helped hone his business operations skills.

He’s logged over a dozen years of experience delivering enterprise level software solutions – spearheading transformational projects across fortune 500 companies. He is extremely hands on, which isn’t surprising coming from a professional bass guitar player. After touring and traveling across the lower 48 he’s funneled that dexterity into solving problems and shaping engagement for his team and Verndale’s clients.

He’s a diehard Celtics fan living in LA, which is a testament to his courage and fortitude. It also means that if you’re looking for him during playoffs season he’ll be at Sonny Mclean’s with the rest of the Boston expatriates.

Ryan Moltenbrey

EVP, Sales

Our clients have long appreciated his collaborative approach and relationship building versus the hard sell, car-dealership-on-steroids approach that they’ve run into elsewhere. Over the last 10 years, he’s helped build a team that echoes this style, bringing a refreshing level of hospitality and partnership to every client they meet.

He knows his product backwards and forwards and has a ton of faith in his team – which leads him to make ever-loftier promises that, with enough caffeine and teamwork, we’re consistently able to achieve.

When he’s building client partnerships or promising the world, you can find him in the Berkshires, relaxing with his family in the crystal clear waters of Otis Reservoir, casting a fly in an icy stream or, (during weekends between pre-season and the championship) feeding what he calls his “Patriots Problem.

Elizabeth Spranzani

SVP, Development

After graduating from Boston College with degrees in Computer Science and Psychology, and a brief stint with Primix Solutions, Liz began working at Verndale in 2001. As the company has transformed from a 7-person shop to the agency it is today, Liz has worked her way up through the roles of engineer, technical lead and technical architect.

Now as the leader of Development, Liz works closely with QA, Front-End and Engineering teams to bring best practices, organization, innovation and passion to everything they do. Her focus is two pronged. First: analyzing the health and strategy of each department to ensure a great environment for her team members. Second: working with technical leaders on projects to verify they are executing successfully within budget and timeline, always keeping in mind reuse, efficiency and quality.

Liz's various technical certifications keep her up-to-date within the industry and she isn't afraid to jump in and get her hands dirty when duty calls. She is particularly proud of her Sitecore MVP status. She is one of only three women to receive this prestigious acknowledgement in 2015.

German Villacreces

Managing Director, Verndale Quito

Germán, who opened the office five years ago, was the perfect choice for the job. He’s learned to funnel his boundless energy, talents, and perfectionist tendencies into hiring the best people and helping them accomplish their goals. When he’s not doing that, he’s working on goals of his own at the local soccer pitch (or watching Messi work on his – Visca el Barça!).

In addition to running offices, he’s led development teams for most of the past decade – something he’s uniquely qualified to do since he’s a developer himself, with experience at tackling complex experiences for Fortune 500 companies and even running his own startup mobile gaming company

He loves food and can frequently be found fine-tuning his grilling skills. His guilty pleasure is pizza, which makes his obsessive soccer playing even more important!

Jeff Pratt

Commerce Practice Director

Jeff leads Verndale’s Commerce Experience Practice, leveraging 25 years experience as a business owner as well as his digital strategy leadership across a wide variety of industries and business models. Having built his own timber frame cabin, he is as hands on as they come. True to form, he sweats the details and plays an active role in each and every one of our commerce engagements – as a strategic advisor and stakeholder through every phase.

His broad background has given him experience in a wide range of experiences and technologies, from online to in store – and his ability to understand how they all work in concert with each other is a rare and beautiful thing. Jeff’s client work includes both CPG and onmnichannel retail companies such as Orvis, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters / Keurig and Hershey Chocolate Company, as well as manufacturer sector / B2B channel models in the alternate energy and manufacturing sectors.

Events

We exhibit, attend, speak, teach and learn at many industry events throughout the year. Going somewhere you think we should be? Going somewhere where we'll be and want to connect? Contact us at hello@verndale.com.

Work at Verndale

Inside the walls of Verndale, we’ve created our own atmosphere of camaraderie, commitment and frictionless fun. We’re here to make a difference. To lead. And challenge both ourselves and the status quo.

Giving Back

Through the Verndale Cares program we support our employees and their causes by getting organized around and involved in community service efforts. We believe that through the power of volunteering and community involvement, we have the potential to make a big difference, and have a positive impact on the people in the neighborhoods where we work and live.